Cliché
by xXxJaceInWonderlandxXx
Summary: "She hates stereotypes with a passion, hates clichés even more, and perhaps that's why there's not a single tub of Ben and Jerry's on the ground, no tissue boxes scattered across her bedspread." Short Percabeth fluff. AU. Oneshot. For Angel.


**I told you all I would be getting some new fics up! Granted, even I didn't think it would be this fast, but it's my last free day for a while and instead of laying around like a lazy bum (which I did, for like, 4 hours) I decided to write this.**

**Shameless, cliché, Percabeth AU fluff.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, or Xbox, or Halo, or Ben and Jerry's. **

**Dedication: To Angel, ****because this is basically all of her Nalex dreams come true.**** I'm not writing Nalex though (God forbid I ever do), so don't bug me about the similarities at school, k?**

**Warnings: Lots of mentions of sex and cheating. Some kissing. Fair bit of language.**

**And on that happy note, enjoy!**

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He walks into her room without knocking.

If this was a normal friendship, she would be offended by his utter lack of decency and respect, but this isn't a normal friendship, not at all, because they've grown up together and seen each other at their worst and shared secrets and laughed and cried. So no, she isn't offended when he walks into her bedroom, the door creaking behind him, taking in the shut blinds and the way she's under layers upon layers of blankets even though it's actually warm outside for once.

He also can't help but notice that she's fully dressed, and that thought makes him smile for a second, because of course Annabeth would make sure she was looking neat and proper before going to go and sulk on her bed. She hates stereotypes with a passion, hates clichés even more, and perhaps that's why there's not a single tub of Ben and Jerry's on the ground, no tissue boxes scattered across her bedspread. Perhaps that's why she's sitting up in her bed, blanket wound tight around her, Xbox controller in hand as she furiously plays Halo.

"You suck at this game, you know," Percy walks over to her bed, nudging her to the side with his hip before clambering in next to her. Her legs move on instinct to rest on top of his, her head falling onto his shoulder as her character onscreen dies, causing her to mutter curses under her breath. "See? You just proved my point."

She looks up at him tiredly, pausing the game, her makeup immaculate and eyes not even a tiny bit red. "Percy, why are you here?" It's not said as a question, more of an exasperated statement, and he reels back for a second at her bitterness before realizing that he completely, utterly, 100% deserves it.

"I heard Luke was a dick," Percy smiles in an attempt to lighten the mood, because they've been friends for so goddamn long and having her be this closed off to him hurts like hell, to no avail. "Alright, alright. I came because I was worried about you."

Annabeth shrugs, her head still on his shoulder even though he can tell she's pissed. She's restarted her game, fingers skimming idly over controls as she attempts to play. "Why were you worried? Last time I checked, you didn't give a damn about my life, and besides, I'm fine." She blasts a couple heads off as if to punctuate her statement.

"No, you're not," Percy frowns, snatching the controller away from her, ignoring her indignant protests. "Your boyfriend of two years just cheated on you and then proceeded to dump you in front of most of the student body. I wouldn't call that fine."

Annabeth scowls at that, and he can't tell if it's because he took her controller or that she's annoyed about how cliché the whole breakup was. "I'm perfectly fine, thank you very much. The breakup itself was inevitable anyways- there's no way in all of hell we would have stayed together much longer. Luke cheating just kind of… speeded the whole process up."

Percy's heart leaps for a second when Annabeth mentions that she didn't want to stay with Luke, before he quickly regains his composure. This is Annabeth, his best friend since the age of five. He's supposed to be a brotherly figure to her, a best friend. He just needs to squash those damn feelings for her and move on. "That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. You seriously can't be okay with the fact that he hooked up with another girl while you two were still together."

Annabeth's silent for a second, the only sound being the gunfire emitted from the TV. "Do you want to know why he did it?" She finally asks, her voice not wavering in the slightest. She doesn't look at him, doesn't do anything except continue to play Halo, her legs still on top of his.

Percy's voice is hoarse as he snatches a second controller, refusing to even glance at the girl beside him. "Sure." It's awkward, so damn awkward between the two, and he wishes he could just rewind back to two years ago, when there was no Luke and no drama and the feelings they had for each other were just platonic.

"It was because of you," Annabeth doesn't say anything about Percy joining the game, just continues to blast people to the ground. She laughs, bitterly. "It's like a ridiculous soap opera, isn't it? He cheated on me because he thought I had been cheating on him with you."

Percy's throat is uncomfortably dry as he speaks. "But… we… um… we didn't do anything!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Annabeth smile just a tiny bit. "Well, duh, Seaweed Brain. But you know that one night a couple months ago, when it was the anniversary of my mom's death?"

Percy nods. He remembers that night. He remembers every single detail of that night, up until the point of their fallout. "Yeah…"

"Well," Annabeth sighs. "We were in the same bed, completely platonically, right? Because I had been crying and upset and had fallen asleep with you? And then Luke walked in and found us together… and then you said some stuff to him… and then he got pissed and stormed out? Do you remember all that?"

Percy concentrates on the game, not up for reliving one of his worst moments. "I called him a dick because he wanted me to get out and then you got pissed at me and then I told Luke that he didn't deserve you and he left and you bitched at me for making Luke mad. Yep, I'm pretty sure I remember." The sarcasm is practically dripping off of him.

"And then… after Luke left," Annabeth takes a deep breath. "He went over to Madison Jennings's house. And they decided to do some things behind my back."

"This was two months ago," Percy isn't surprised that Luke would cheat on Annabeth with Madison- she was about as easy as they come- but he is surprised at the time at which this occurred. "You mean to tell me that that jackass has been cheating on you for _two months_?"

Annabeth bites her bottom lip, still playing Halo but without any enthusiasm. "Yup."

Percy swears for a while, fingers practically murdering the Xbox controller as he shoots at anything within sight. "So you got pissed at me for telling the guy that hooked up with Madison that he didn't deserve you, and then you're not at all mad at all at the guy who actually cheated on you?"

"I was an idiot, okay?" Annabeth finally snaps, just as he knew she eventually would. She throws her controller down, lifts her head off of his shoulder, and turns around to face him. "I'm supposed to be all logic and facts. I don't know how to handle love. Love isn't permanent, it's messy and crazy and I didn't know what to do, okay? I thought that Luke would be a distraction, someone I could rely on, something permanent for now. And then when we fought, I would try so hard to get back into his good graces because I couldn't stand not having that support, that structure in my life. So go on and blame me, because I was an idiot and I know very well what I did wrong and-"

She's cut off by Percy kissing her, reaching forward and stopping the flow of words from her mouth with his lips, and she can't resist any longer and so she kisses him back, not caring that someone could walk in at any second. They finally break apart, both of them panting and staring at each other as they realize that oh god, they've just kissed and this is going to change everything and they aren't sure what comes now and they've just kissed…

Annabeth scowls for a second, and Percy's heart drops because he's so afraid right now, afraid of rejection, afraid of losing her, and then she speaks. "This is all so cliché."

He lets out a long whoosh of air, grinning, as his heart regains its normal rhythm. "How so?"

Annabeth picks back up her controller, and he follows suit, continuing their game. "Best friends that grew up together, lived almost practically beside each other, and then they get older and the girl finds a new guy but he doesn't treat her well and so her best friend comforts her and they end up together. This could be a Taylor Swift song, I swear."

Percy shrugs. "Then I guess you'll just have to embrace the cliché."

They're sitting there, playing Halo, her head on his shoulder and legs entangled. It's exactly like it was two hours ago, as if nothing has changed.

And yet, everything has.

fin.

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**I suck at endings, if you couldn't tell.**

**Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review- they really make my day and I love hearing what you guys think!**

**Thanks for reading,**

**-Jace ;)**

**PS: I may post another WIP one-shot later in the week, so watch for that! If not, I'll post after I come back from vacation.**


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